All Those TV Cooking Shows Are Making You Fat

You probably don't need a dietitian to tell you Paula's deep-fried butter pops aren't the best for you, health-wise. But a new study published in Appetite suggests that all television cooking shows are out to get you. Researchers at Cornell and the University of Vermont studied women who watched cooking shows and found the ones who actually made the stuff on TV had higher BMIs.

Study authors Lizzy Pope, Lara Latimer, and Brian Wansink surveyed 501 women in their 20s and 30s about their personal cooking habits. They discovered that women who watched Giada or Ina Garten but didn't really cook for themselves weighed an average of 153lbs -- while women who watched the same shows but actually followed through on the kitchen advice weighed an average of 164lbs. Scientifically speaking, there was a positive correlation between obtaining info from cooking shows and BMI. Getting recipes off social media was also associated with higher BMIs, but grabbing stuff from magazines or friends was not. Basically, the research is saying you should trust your family's meatloaf over Bobby Flay's, making this one scientific study your Mom can get behind.

Kristin Hunt is a Food/Drink staff writer for Thrillist, and thinks she gained 2lbs just looking at that photo. Follow her at @kristin_hunt.